>or killing a Communist party leader

Socialist Party.

>which was previously an anonymous spec in the sky, that took the picture.

There's no such thing on LEO. The fact it's a military satellite was known since the launch.

The orbit type tells us its likely purpose.

That picture confirmed it's an optical surveillance. And the most interesting part was the resolution of that picture.

We could estimate it knowing the rocket fairing diameter, which limits aperture diameter. But that was a solid confirmation.